A 13-year-old boy left with devastating brain injuries due to negligent delays in his birth at Birmingham Women’s Hospital has won £5.5 million damages.

Nathan Popple, who previously lived in Selly Oak, suffered profound oxygen starvation while he was being born in November 1997.

Brain damage has left him with cerebral palsy and catastrophic disabilities, the High Court heard.

He has full mental capacity, but very limited mobility, cannot feed himself or speak, and needs extensive care.

Judge Stephen Oliver-Jones QC ruled that Nathan’s life was wrecked by a “combination of failures” by midwifery staff at the hospital.

Birmingham Women’s Hospital said they were planning to appeal against the ruling.

Derek Sweeting QC, for Nathan, told the court that the boy's injuries were caused by a 20-minute delay to his delivery, adding: “The brain damaging events during this period were avoidable with proper care and should in fact have been avoided.”

Nathan, who now lives in Leeds, is looked after by his mother Beryl Sanderson, her civil partner Sarah Carmody, and his 16-year-old sister, Jade.

His father, Stephen Popple, was present at his birth and still plays an active part in his life.

Judge Oliver-Jones said that subject to the court’s final approval, the payout will take the form of a £2,105,000 lump sum from Birmingham Women’s NHS Foundation Trust, plus annual index-linked and tax free payments to cover the enormous costs of his care.

Those payments will start at £148,000-a-year, rising to £173,000-a-year when he is aged 19.

Ms Sanderson said Nathan was “white and floppy” on delivery and it was ten minutes before he took his first breath.

The acute damage to Nathan’s brain occurred “immediately before birth” and the judge said midwives on the scene had failed to monitor both the foetal heart and maternal contractions “properly, or at all”.

Midwives had mistakenly believed there was no need to monitor “because delivery was imminent”.

The midwives’ failures led to an “inevitable finding of breach of duty”, he said.

Speaking after the case, Nathan’s father told how his son hoped to use the money to fulfil his dream to study IT and computing at university.

He is also a sports fan and is looking forward to the Paralympics in London next year.

Steve said: “No amount of money can change what happened but he will now be able to get specialist computer equipment to help him do well at school and will be able to pay for care and support workers so that he can go to university.”

A spokeswoman for Birmingham Women’s Hospital said: “We are obviously very disappointed by the Court’s Judgement and intend to seek permission to appeal the Judgment to the Court of Appeal. It would not be appropriate to comment further at this stage.”